Return to Byzantium
by MagnaCardias
Summary: Audrey Dawn is an American high school student attending Istanbul International School located on the ancient grounds of Byzantium. She thinks that this day will be like any other day...
1. Chapter 1

**Episode**: Return to Byzantium

**Scene**: 2019 - Istanbul International School (On the grounds of ancient Byzantium)

**Players**: Audrey Dawn- American High School Senior; The Doctor -Time Lord; Mr. Mckinnel - High School Maths Teacher; Mr. Choi- Teacher; Ms. Charino-Teacher; Mr. Avery-Ex Principal/Schoolmaster- returned to England.

The sun had not yet risen when she arrived at school. It was a typical dark wintery morning and the dreariness of the Istanbul winter was monotonous. Only the individual rain drops seemed a form of randomness as they intermittently spat upon her in the hopes of landing on a portion of exposed skin. Every morning the same darkness; everyday the same cold breeze. Every afternoon the same burning toxic plastic smells coming in from across the street. And every single day the same cold building and same teachers and same schoolmates, most of which she had had since kinder-garden.

She wished she could have stayed in bed today and all the elements of nature reminded her why. When she turned the corner, the wind slapped her cheeks and her ears were blasted by a very poor recording of some Turkish melody playing through the rusty P.A. system which announced the beginning of class. But something different did happen this morning. This morning the audio melody oddly skipped into a version of God Save the Queen before cutting off abruptly as if it were a vinyl record being scratched. She laughed aloud as she climbed the concrete steps and reaching for the metal door. The rain drops were picking up intensity and suddenly she needed to get inside not only to avoid the tardy slip, but to stay dry.

The door tried to open but was restrained as if latched. She tried again, pulling harder this time, but the tug resulted in a loud banging of metal against concrete. She looked to see the bottom edge of the door unable to clear the concrete on the outside. It was very peculiar. How was that possible? Either the concrete had to have been raised, or the door had somehow fallen down an inch or so. She couldn't get in and the rain drops were now pelting her, so she climbed back down the steps, and around through the Lion's Den into the MPR, where she was able to open the door but discovered she couldn't shut it.

"That's weird!" She said.

But she didn't care too much, she had gotten in out of the cold rain. She walked quickly through the MPR and noticed Ms. Charino in the P.E. office with a whistle around her neck and covered mug full of hot steaming tea. The clock on the wall displayed the hour and minute hands point to 8 o'clock, except that all the numbers on the face were 2's. That was definitely weird. Had she never noticed that before? But now her internal clock was telling her to hurry to avoid the tardy bell, and she quickened her pace.

Passing by the Girls restroom and up the steps she bounded in just two strides! She turned the corner and was now in the proper entrance to the school where just a moment ago, she couldn't get in. With time now working against her, she simply glanced at the door from the inside and noticed a silhouette of someone banging from the outside.

"You'll have to go around! It's stuck!" She yelled as she continued upward. She reached the end of the first flight of steps in just one huge leaping bound. It surprised her that she could have jumped that high. In fact she jumped so high, that she barely nicked her head on the ceiling. She turned the corner and leaped up the next set of stairs that lead to the receptionist's desk. But now something was definitely not right.

When she turned to continue to the next flight, she had to duck and squeeze into a narrow and dark passage quite unlike the stairwell she was used to. Leaving the receptionist desk behind she ventured upward and out of view. It was still dark outside, and no light was coming in to help show the way, but she knew it by heart. She had been going there since kindergarten, and now she was a high school senior. From somewhere above, a faint light source glowed anemically toward her and she kept climbing upward. She heard students talking and chairs being drug along the floors, but it seemed that this floor was out of service for some reason. Maybe she just hadn't heard about it, so she kept climbing upward in the dark.

The only light she had was from the top floors at a distance and it was now darker than before. The darkness was thickening like a room of its own. She suddenly could not see anything. She put out her hand along the wall which had becoming increasingly narrow and short so that now she had to take off her back pack to get through the stairway and in order to keep climbing to the next floor. She discarded her backpack and kept going. She felt along the wall and it wasn't smooth, there was a giant crack in it. It seemed to run the entire length of the wall. As long as she kept walking, climbing the stairs, her hand ran along the edges of the crack in the plaster.

What was wrong with the electricity? What was wrong with these stairs? Where was she going?

The tardy bell rang and Mr. Choi began to take role for AP Chemistry class. "Audrey? Audrey Dawn? Anyone seen Audrey?" And because she hadn't missed a single class period in her entire enrollment at IGA, going all the way back to kindergarten, Mr. Choi decided to step out into the hall and look for her.

"Audrey Dawn? Audrey? Are you here?" Mr. Choi looked one way and then the other but there was nobody in the hall. But there was a back pack sitting alone.

Mr. Choi walked over and picked it up. It was Audrey's alright. But where was Audrey?

Meanwhile, Audrey Dawn could see nothing through the pitch dark that had encompassed the now ridiculously small pathway on the staircase. She was on her knees and all sides were closing in on her. She couldn't go ahead any farther. She couldn't fit. She tried to retreat but couldn't find her footing. The only guidance she had was the crack along the wall that she used as a guide rail. It was then that she noticed how much wider and deeper the crack had grown and she reached into it all the way up to her arm.

"That's it.. just a little more now." a voice said to her in a comforting confident British accent.

"What? Who is there?" She cried out.

"It's okay I'm the Doctor! Now just give me your hand. There you go..That's a girl."

And from somewhere within the deep recesses of the crack in the wall she felt another human hand grabbing hers. She didn't know what had happened, but she finally felt safe. (End of Intro-Part1)


	2. Enter The Doctor

"You're in the Tardis! You're in the Tardis!"

"But how? How?...What? What?...I was going to class..class"

"Wait! Wait. Stop! Stop!"

"Doctor! Doctor!"

"Why is everything echoing..echoing?"

"Is it? Is it? It's not for me...me." The Doctor said only once but Audrey heard this twice.

She fainted and when she awoke, she was seated inside the Tardis and the Doctor was manically reading a data screen at hundred miles a second.

"Doctor, where am I? I was on my way to class when..everything shrunk."

"Yes I know, and its a good thing I got here when I did. Your physical universe was just about to close you out."

"My universe? Close me out?"

"Within two seconds you would have all but have been forgotten and never existed. See look here.."

"The Doctor grabbed a conical shaped metal device out of its slot on the dash and slung it toward her as it was still connected to cables she could look inside of it and see fuzzy images on a blurry glass lens that looked more like an old television screen than something more modern and sharp like a new iPhone display."

"What am I looking at?"

"The better question is where and when are you looking at, but then of course that wouldn't be proper grammar. But nevertheless the images you see are ionic energy resonant images that occurred in another dimension separate from our present time and location in the universe."

"An alternate reality." She said drearily.

"Precisely, Miss Audrey Dawn, lovely name by the way...and those fuzzy images are fuzzy because this "spectro-velocity-trans-magnomoter" has a lock on your specific ionic trail so everywhere you've been it leaves a piece of you behind so to speak."

"Like a the way a dog can follow a scent."

"Are you sure you aren't a time traveler? You are following splendidly, I might add. Your analogy is almost exact except for that this machine must seek out your ionic trail across time and space which is quite literally impossible, except for that in the rare occasions that it works. Which in your case it is...as you see there in the images before you. What are you seeing by the way?"

"It's hard to tell, but it looks like my AP Chemistry class except for Mr. Choi is the teacher."

"Oh dear! Yes now that might be a bit of a problem. But in the dream the dreamer dreamt a dream of truth and fixture. But once awaken from the dream, the dreamer, was mistaken. "

"What caused all of this and why did my school, er my universe collapse in on me?"

"Very good question and one that I cannot answer at the very moment. Hold this please.." The doctor handed her a cable with a prong on the end of it as he dashed away to around the console in a mad hurry as if the place was on fire and about to explode.

"Mind the metal thingy..don't touch it to yourself or anything else..don't ground it out!" he screamed from behind a metal cabinet as he went thrashing around in desperate search of something.

Audrey stared at the device in her hand. She had never seen anything like it before. What could be? Some sort of fusion powered weapon or energy source most likely.

The doctor was rattling around like a mad man and she heard him fall over and metal things were clanging all around.

"I'm alright! Alright...aha you little bugger!" he was talking to himself from afar while Audrey held the cable in her hand with fear and trepidation.

The doctor emerged with mussed hair and another device in his hand and smug face.

"There you go mate!" he said and he retrieved the cable from Audrey and plugged the retrieved component into it by which he could interface it with the console dash directly.

The energy with which he flung himself around was also disorienting for Audrey for she still had no real idea what had happened and how she was going to get back to her time and place at IGA or if she ever would.

"No then go to work you little coffee maker!" The doctor said with one raised eyebrow staring at the center console.

"Is that your pet name for it?" She asked. "What does it do?"

"It makes coffee. Care for a cup?" The doctor retrieved a mug from within a compartment in the console and turned a tap handle out of which flowed fresh java.

"ehh..."

"Anyway...here's what we have to do. We have to get you back to where you came before its too late."

"What do you mean too late."

"No, no, no that's not quite right is it? We have to get you to the correct quadrant in space and time..there that's better."

"I think I know my own quadrant of space Doctor." Audrey said surprisingly confident and admiring herself with such a bold statement.

"Just like the dreamer eh? Who dreamed that he saw the truth but didn't, and realized it only when he awoke because it was missing."

"I don't know about all that, but I just know things like the clocks have twos, the door should open, Mr. Choi teaches P.E., and Ms. Charino teaches AP Chemistry."

"A gambler took a wager..."

"Enough with the riddles Doctor. I two know where I belong. Now I have two brothers and two parents, a mother and father, I was born in Waco, Texas on February Twenty Second, and I live in Istanbul, Turkey"

The Doctor stopped in his tracks.

"What year were you born, Audrey?"

"That's easy I was born in Two thousand and one.."

"Amazing.."

"What's so amazing about that?"

"Tell me, do you have any other siblings?" The Doctor said eerily still and one eyebrow raised in his query.

"Yes...there are two girls and two boys," she replied.

"And do you have any pets?"

"No just a cat, his name is Merlin. He's the second one, the first one was Max, he ran away."

"Incredible!"

"What's so incredible about a cat named Merlin?" She inquired.

"But you didn't say that originally. When I asked if you had any pets you said "no." And when I asked if you siblings you said you had two brothers. You didn't say anything about a sister."

"You answer every question with the number two. You said clocks have twos! And when I first found you, you were hearing everything double...in a series of pairs which are two's, which is binary code. Hang on a second."

Audrey wasn't sure exactly what binary code was but she remembered from I.T. class that it was the foundation of computer language. Every input from a computer keyboard is represented by binary code. It is how information is passed and saved digitally. For instance 00101001 represents the letter 'H,' and 11100010 represents the letter 'B.'

Audrey had seen some crazy antics up to this point but what she witnessed next was completely unexpected. The Doctor began speaking into a microphone in binary code. With his eyes as wide as tea saucers, he began barking out binary numbers.

"Zero, zero, zero, one, one, one, zero, one zero, zero, one, one one, one, zero, one, zero, zero, zero, one, zero,.."

The Doctor went on like this for a solid minute. Speaking directly to the Tardis in only zeros or ones, in binary code. He then ran around the center console at least ten times consecutively not stopping completely to adjust a knob here and turn a lever there. The Tardis went crazy with lights and sounds. It seemed to have jumped in place and spun around as well.

"I bet you loved that, old friend." The Doctor patted the console lovingly and looked up at the ceiling as if petting a dog.

"A gecko may crawl into a rotten tomato and call it home but...a watermelon is where he belongs."

(Break Here- End Part-2)


	3. The Mad Mathematician

"I mean the window in time and space is closing for us. Once it is closed, its done and any hope of stopping the phenomenon is gone. Just like that staircase that was collapsing in around you."

The Doctor was sullen faced as he explained the chances that the would succeed.

"Take another look in the spectrometer window there on the machine. It will help you see what I'm talking about."

Audrey looked into the old scratchy window mounted on the machine but where she once saw blurry images she now only saw fainter-fuzzy outlines of people in her class. Some people were just mere pixels with no faces. The images that were once people that had then become blurry were now only represented by a few faint pixels. She realized that every passing second was precious if they were going to save any more students from certain disaster.

"I'm afraid that time is of the essence, as they sayyyyyy- Hold on!"

The doctor's words were accentuated by an immediate drop in altitude so that the entire Tardis began to plummet in a linear vector accelerating unlike anything she had experienced. Normally it would have created a zero gravity environment but due to the unique characteristics of the phone booth, nothing floated up from the floor, although it should have. The inertia still tugged at her insides and Audrey couldn't help but to scream. The sensation was the same as a roller coaster does when it crests the top and races toward earth. Although without a proper horizon standard to gauge their geography and without a way to measure their time, the Doctor had to rely on his instinct to determine where and when they were traveling.

"Now I'm sure you haven't the slightest idea where I'm taking you, and that's okay. The most important thing to remember is..."

The Doctor's words tapered off so that he never completed his sentence.

"..the most important thing to remember is what?" Audrey cried out.

But the Doctor was too busy reading a ticker tape that the Tardis was spewing out as one long continuous message as they were being tossed through space and time like a spiraling pineapple. The letters were undecipherable, like nothing she had ever seen.

"..ahh never mind that, I'm afraid that is no longer the most important thing. From now on the most important thing is... "

Once again they were thrown to the floor and the Doctor couldn't finish his sentence. And then suddenly everything stopped. The Doctor picked up where he left off.

"I'll give it to you straight...Too much maths!"

"Too much math?"

"How can I put this is in context for you?" the Doctor ambled around nervously looking for a way to describe the indescribable.

"Every person has a certain amount of ionic energy associated with them. It is sub atomic but it leaves an energy trail everywhere you go. When a person creates more ionic energy, it creates more of an energy trail."

"Like exhaust from a car?"

"No, not really, but sort of.. yes..yes..yes..close enough..Anyway...when you do anything that uses energy it leaves an ionic footprint. Brain energy leaves a slightly different footprint and when the brain becomes taxed and over taxed, it emits more ionic energy. When groups of people are gathered together in close quarters utilizing brain activity, the ionic energy is concentrated. There was a severe buildup of ionic energy developing directly here."

The Doctor pointed to a map on this console.

"But that's Mr. McKinnel's Math class."

"Oh he's a villain that one," sneered the Doctor.

"But Mr. McKinnel..isn't."

"Nevertheless the criminal must be stopped. He's causing a rupture in the time space continuum and using the Istanbul International School as a cover. Oh he's dastardly! Maths... Maths... and under the auspicious of educating youth. So help me..."

"I'm not sure...that Mr. McKinnel would..."

"Mr. McKinnel? Is that what you call him? I'll have you know that on Podie-Huun-6, he's known as the Mad Mathematician. On Cookie-Nana-7, he's known for his Doomsday Derrivative... Oh ho...I can't wait to get my hands on him.."

"Doctor I just don't think. Wait a minute. Did you say Doomsday Derrivative?" Audrey asked.

"He created a Calculus problem so involved that 7 students created so much ionic energy it created a momentary vortex; sucking them all into oblivion. But see, that's the thing he needs 7 students minimum in order to create enough ionic energy to get the vortex."

Audrey still wasn't buying the idea that Mr. Mckinnel was the Mad Mathematician or some sort of Mathematical Terrorist with his secret Doomsday Derrivative bomb designed to rip holes in the time and space and erasing students from existence.

We've got to stop him at all costs...whatever it takes...oh! the more i think about it. Yes it makes perfect sense now. The interchange of languages, creates more demand on the synaptic confluence, inducing even MORE ionic brain activity. Don't you see? Everyone thinks in their own language and they have to translate it secondarily, before working with it. He chose an international school where the brains are naturally taxed, and naturally creating 10x's the normal ionic energy. By increasing maths problems over and over and over again, he's getting exponential generation of energy so that the present continuum can't hold it, and begins to tear a fabric into the very wall of time and space... A perfect devil this one..."

The doctor thought for a moment and then continued.

"The last maths problem looks like it may have been done by Jus2in. Do you know anyone by that name Jus2in?

"Uh there's a Justin-"1

"Of course, Justin...working out a second-anti-derivation of a double-integration. The number 2 might have have difficulty being represented in such an unstable state."

The doctor said nothing he only stared off into space somber and sullen as if all hope of getting Audrey back to her rightful spot in the space-time continuum and stopping the Mad Mathematician was lost.

(Break Here. End of chapter 3)


	4. Alternate Realities

(Commercial)...

(begin part 4)

The Doctor made his way to the Tardis entryway and stood before the closed doors in dramatic fashion as if suddenly overcome with the burden of unrevealed knowledge.

"What awaits us beyond these walls...," he adjusted his skinny tie, and pointed nervously "..I cannot say precisely... which alternate reality it will be. But I can say with 100% certainty that since you are from a different timeline, you can rest assured that you ...you...you my friend are immortal."

"IMMORTAL?" Audrey was stunned.

"Well, not really imMORtal, but immortal in the sense that you don't exist in this time line and so technically you cannot die in it...so technically immortal but okay lets just say you can die, and it doesn't really count."

"I wasn't counting on dying anyway," Audrey exclaimed.

But the Doctor wasn't finished explaining. Due to the sheer capacity of the Time lord's brain and capacity for processing thoughts, it is not terribly uncommon that he will contradict himself only moments after coming to a conclusion, not because the first conclusion was incorrect or premature, but unlike human brains where cognitive reasoning takes place with focused effort, the Time lord is able to truly multi-process very much like putting boiling water on a back burner to simmer. His thoughts can continue to calculate while he has moved on to focus elsewhere. So often times a Time lord is able to reach a new conclusion based on the millions of calculations he processed since his last conclusion.

"...no no now wait a minute..that's not quite right at all... actually it is 100% certain..."

The Doctor's mind was now retrieving the possible scenarios that he had placed on parallel computation mode as he began dedicating full cerebral processing capabilities to the task at hand. He was literally running through hundreds of millions of different possibilities simultaneously. His eyes closed lightly and he touched his index finger to his temple.

"...yes..yes...yyyyyes... it is 100% certain not that you are immortal but that in fact you will die! awkward silence eyes looking left then right then left again awkward pause it seemed that even the Tardis' heart/engine paused on that note, waiting for something more On second thought...maybe you should wait inside the Tardis."

"But Doctor..." Audrey had many questions, but the Doctor had no time for school girl observations for he was still making calculations and possible outcomes for his young time-space traveler. Raising up his sneaker and placing it on the the dash, he then leaped to the top of the Tardis console where it seemed he had concentrated his mental energy. Audrey thought she saw static electricity lightening effects buzzing about his head.

"WAIT! No, no, I got it now.. Ah Ha! Yes, If you see yourself out there walking around...for instance you see another you, it means your original timeline that was once a parallel universe has just converged into this one, meaning that the conglomeration of timelines was always one timeline even-though it required the merging of two different ones.. So...depending on which one of 'you' survives the cataclysmic shock of seeing yourself from another timeline (that only appears to be corrupted but when in actuality it was all a part of the real timeline that they two should converge)...Anyway..whichever Audrey returns with me...yes that is a deeper question isn't it! If the original Audrey, survives and returns or if the Audrey from this timeline returns...hold on, this will take more calculations..."

"Doctor, I've already been taken out of my timeline, so in one sense I already have died. Remember they only found my backpack? But since I am still alive it must mean that transporting into another timeline has become my new timeline. So I am living in this time line that is intersecting with other timelines so whether I live or die won't be any different than if I had stayed. I'm not afraid, I'm ready to go out there, whatever it is. Now open those doors!" Audrey waxed boldly poetic inspiring even the Doctor.

"Okay have it your way.." the Doctor said nonchalantly and jumping down off the console and opened the doors.

"Plus I have to go to the bathroom like a maniac! " Audrey added.

Stepping out of the Tardis, Audrey Dawn realized immediately where they had landed. It was in the very farthest corner of the International school property where the two walls come to a point, behind several fruit trees in the garden. Right beside them and hidden from view was the emergency phone booth tucked away so that not even nosy first or second graders would see it.

It felt good to step onto solid ground again.

"We are in the garden. All this looks the same." Audrey said as she strode merrily but guardedly through the plum trees taking in a 360 degree twirling view of her immediate environment spinning slowly with her arms out lightly touching the branches and leaves that were at eye level.

"It all is the same!" Audrey said confidently.

But she noticed the Doctor solemn, serious and silent.

"Doctor, its the same! We are in the right time and place!" she said enthusiastically.

But the Doctor only looked downward, not moving or sharing her enthusiasm.

"Doctor..."

"Did your timeline have this?" The Doctor slowly knelt and brushed back some leaves revealing a brand new gray marble tombstone with a cross and an angel's head on the top.

" or this...or this.. or all these..."

Under his feet was an unmistakable stone cut granite tombstone. But there wasn't just the one, there were several. All of them cut in the same gray marble but with different names but very different looking angel heads on top. She didn't recognize the names but the angel heads didn't seem right. She bent over to get a closer look.

The first angel head had been glued on to the top. It was different colored stone; much darker and older. The head wasn't centered exactly, or straight, or even very professional, but yet someone went to the trouble to add an angel head to each one of these. Neither of them were the same. One was smiling, one was weeping, one was blowing a kiss, one was bowed in reverence and still one was smirking.

A chill ran down her spine because she knew this wasn't right, but she chased it away by forcing herself to deduce what had happened.

She examined a tombstone it read, "Sherman T. Parallelogram, he was obtuse at times but equally acute."

Another placard read...

"Numbers keeping the secrets of old, for eons spoken to those who are told, the power of the symbols, ciphers and clues, still lurking in undiscovered proofs."

" Rest In Peace, Mr. Rhombus, He was unparalleled from every angle."

"Pythagoras, Thy Beautiful Cadence I will sing of thee, One, Two, Square Root of Three."

"Is this some kind of joke? This is disturbing," said Audrey. "Is it supposed to be funny or what?'

"Perverted Maths! I've seen it before. It's never pretty. Turn away Miss Dawn. Look no further upon this sickness, this disease. Behold what manner of decrepit discipline does wreak havoc upon the soul." The Doctor said in disgust..

"Here lies Linear Function, he never strayed from the straight and narrow."

"It turns my stomach! There's nothing sicker more degenerate than the maths obsessed criminal. Look what he's done to these poor students. Maths proposes a power to learn, solve, and understand the universe, but this is the bait and within it the hook. The student learns but never achieves, always rewarded with a more difficult problem to solve, until finally his desire has become addiction and his pursuit of knowledge betrays him...seeing nothing in life but formulas, always working never achieving."

" R.I.P. Pair-Abola, Your work is done, your plane is fixed, but no longer to this earthly plane. Fare thee well, my conic-shaped friend I will never work y(squared)= 5x the same again."

"Uh...This is all actually very good news.." Audrey spoke up.

"Yes?" queried the Doctor.

"Yes, uh...uh... it means...it means... we are on the right timeline...you see... these students died doing maths...so that means... uh your theory about Mr. Mckinnel is correct."

"Exactly! That little mathematical demon...we've got him now...he's probably in there right now unleashing his instruments of torture upon the poor souls."

He retrieved his well-used sonic screwdriver and raised one eyebrow as he read the tiny display only available to him.

"We need to move. Then ionic energy cloud created from the maths class is growing. Its only a matter of hours or maybe days before it rips another hole in space and time. We've got to get in there and stop him!"

Audrey lead the way out of the garden and toward the school. The Doctor was slow to follow, he didn't want to reveal the name upon the grave where he stood. He waited until she left. He looked at it one more time to confirm that he read it correctly. Here lies Audrey Dawn...Calculus Claimed her soul.

The doctor stared at the dirt below and then into the heavens above. Raising his fist he made an unscripted vow to the universe that erupted from his very soul and from deep within the chamber of twin hearts that beat together as one.

"My God! what a monster! With the foundations of the universe as my witness I make this pledge...that I will see justice done. From every darkened corner of the this galaxy where lonely calculators sit idle and nerdy maths students mourn to work integrals and solve equations fearful of the tyranny of ionic implosion. In the name of everything that's good and right, I vow to unleash maths to be what it was intended to be, the tool by which nerds can truly shine and let their brain power grow unimpeded into the far reaches of shadowy time and space shedding the very light of hope and knowledge into it and with it... (dramatic pause)...the chance to do maths without their head exploding."

The intensity grew but volumed lessened to a deep whisper originating from the depths of the Doctor's soul.

"Every Math Nerd Hear me now and hear me clear...and every mother that birthed you and held you to her beating breast...Grieve no longer! Kratos you jealous deity of old, could you not bear to see her Athena hold the keys to ciphers, so attack her you did but upon Zeus you never summated... that he would save her and be your end. And as Kratos was so shall you be you modern devil, Mckinnel, you modern-plastic Kratos, you and your demon maths! Upon this Doctor you never summated. Hold your brainy heads up thou nerds, your redemption draweth neigh! the wayward scoundrel son of Kratos shall be cut off from the land of the living and threaten you no more...so help me...The Doctor...Nerds on that day...you shall be free !"

Having spoken his vow in all earnest with hands lifted upward, he returned to himself once again, strained his tie, gathered his emotions, and left the garden and quickened his pace for a showdown with Kratos.


	5. Fools Rush in

Audrey walked so briskly across the school yard that she never saw the evidence all around her. It was her school, after all, and she knew it all by heart; every inch, every corner, every floor. But she wasn't used to time travel and how it can affect even the most permanent things in your life. Flying-up the concrete steps like the wind, she opened the large metal door with a certain command of ownership and ease; the same one that earlier had been stuck. This time she blew-in with the gale force of a hurricane. All the students were in class. The hallways were empty. She was on mission! She rushed around the corner and down the first flight of stairs to the restroom where for a novice time-space traveler, she was feeling the full affects of a full bladder and not having gone since she had been in a different quadrant of the galaxy.

She claimed an empty stall and took her seat. It was wet! Gross! But she was in a hurry. Many important things to be done. Plus her bladder had never been so full. She suddenly realized one of the differences in this timeline. She had come in so quickly she hadn't noticed the wall fixtures that are most exclusively found in the boys' restrooms. Suddenly she heard boys talking and laughing and a pang of horror shot through her more than her first trip inside of the Tardis. She was in the boys bathroom! Somehow, in this alternate reality, they were switched. What was more, she was going to the bathroom. She reached out and made sure the door latch was shut and tried to hurry her business along.

A wet paper towel flew overhead and stuck to the ceiling next door. This was followed by more laughing and jostling and someone crashing into her stall from the outside. She was afraid to yell out, so she said nothing. Someone banged on the door. "Come on! I gotta go! Hurry up!" and they kicked it. Audrey, not wanting to ever leave but wishing she could do so immediately, cleared her throat and growled like she had heard her brother Elijah do at the breakfast table so many times. She could speak the language of junior high boys, if she had to.

The sound of spraying water came next, followed by the sight of a stream of water shooting aimlessly around the tiled room. This was followed even more energetic laughing and more wet paper towels zooming over the top of her stall, to even more laughs and giggles of the middle school boys that surrounded her stall. The strength of the metal that surrounded her was tested like a cage when some students scuffled about laughing and threatening each other in only the way that a mens restroom incites male juveniles to horseplay like a full moon on a Saturday night invites mischief. She was fairly certain someone was peeing directly on the tile at one point before the bell rang and the room emptied out. Finally she emerged from the stall, and stepping lightly she washed her hands gingerly being fortunate that she had escaped the most perilous ordeal of her quest so far, unscathed but still somewhat traumatized from the boys bathroom experience.

Shrugging off the feeling that she should wash her hands again, she remembered the task at hand; to find Mr. Mckinnel and stop him before he ripped another hole in the fabric of space and claimed any more casualties. She climbed the stairs and went to the room where she knew him to hold class. She was happily surprised to see the Doctor standing outside the door running some kind of analysis with his sonic screwdriver.

"There you are!" he said. "Ionic levels are still rising, but I can't confirm that they are coming from this room."

"This is our AP Calculus class," Audrey exclaimed.

"In your timeline, yes. But remember-"

Before the Doctor could finish his statement, Audrey pushed open the door with a charge in her spirit and a fresh breath in her lungs ready to yell out to the Mad Mathematician to "STOP!" Except that the room was empty. There wasn't a soul present. Not only was it empty, the shades were drawn with the lights off. It was impressively dark for being in the middle of the day. The walls were so dark, nothing could be seen that was on them.

"Nobody's here! Completely empty! Just the two of us and not a pair of shadows to be had." Audrey said in amazement.

"What's going on here?" The Doctor cautiously looked about. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and acquired more readings. "There are active carbon footprints emanating from here. Right here! As if there are 50 people in this very room. And yet there isn't anybody here."

" Well where are they? There's not a solitary soul in one square inch of this classroom," Audrey said expressing her disappointment.

"My sonic screwdriver…"

"Maybe your sonic screwdriver isn't worth two cents.."

"And maybe you're doing it again," said the Doctor turning his face closer to Audrey making her uncomfortable. "Fascinating…you really don't realize it do you?"

" Did you hear the echo? " Audrey pointed out that their voices reverberated in the emptiness like a canyon, but it was only a classroom.

"Tell me Audrey, what time is it?"

Looking at her watch cooly, "A half past two. What's your point."

"But it isn't a half-past two. Look again."

"Why you're right it's only one thirty."

"And what floor and room is this?"

"Room two on the second floor." Audrey replied.

"If you will look again, your watch-face has nothing but the number two at every position. And when we entered you didn't say it was empty. Rather you said something about 'the two of us and not a PAIR of shadows.' Next you said, 'not a soul in the SQUARE inch.' You cannot speak except in two's. Binary! Just like before. The time is now. We go no further, let's have it! Step out you coward!" The Doctor's power of persuasion was irresistible. But it seemed to fall on deaf ears, for there was seemingly no other audience except for Audrey.

"Doctor you have to believe me…I have no idea what is going on."

"What is more," said the Doctor. "If there are only two of us, then why are there four shadows before us."

Sure as the Doctor's words, looking down where it was previously two dark to see a shadow, now not only the silhouette for each one of them but an additional one for each as well.

"Doctor, I don't feel good about this." Audrey felt her stomach go queasy.

"My screwdriver is never wrong. I think you owe it an apology."

"I'm not apologizing to a screwdriver. Now what is happening! Why are there four shadows!" Audrey felt her instinctual creep-out meter rising by the second.

" Okay, that can wait..It only seems reasonable that we've been lured here to this very time and place, to this very room." The doctor's voice seemed so sensible that it lacked any sense of concern. He continued.

"The trail of two's is unmistakable. This room could not be this dark in the middle of night! There's something in here making it dark. Something casting a shadow on us…Something alive, something baiting us. Don't get excited but we are in teh belly of the beast. Precisely which beast it is, I'm not yet sure…Hold on there you! What on earth is that!"

And looking up they noticed the light fixtures were swinging every so slightly, but they were moving. But there was no earthquake, no wind, and no external force to cause them to swing. The Doctor's screwdriver spun on its own.

"It's never done that before…" The Doctor's eyes jumped back and forth as he began to deduce what was happening.

"Something's up there! Is it a rat?" Screamed Audrey in a voice that expressed a level of horror that surpassed her earlier bathroom experience. She backed up to Doctor still feeling the need to wash her hands.

It was then they noticed the dark walls. They weren't exactly stationary. They seemed to be breathing, suddenly alive with something or some creature. The Doctor's screwdriver made another noise.

The Doctor and Audrey backed up to each other, assuming the most primitive natural defensive position each feeling protected from behind and facing outward. They backed all the way up, so that there was no more room between them. Audrey gave several inches to the taller doctor, but otherwise, the pair resembled the two-headed god Janus.

"Doctor, what's happening?"

"We've been lured here. It's a trap. Mckinnel programmed you in binary. I should have seen the signs. He knew I would be distracted by running the all the potential calculations…which is exactly what I did. I have a feeling… just a feeling mind you…by the way ever been to Boondockie-3?"

The sound of inhaling and exhaling was now heard in the room, whereas before it was silent and echo-y.

"Boondockie-3? Doctor what are you talking about?"

"Very nasty, tiny, but spunky fellows. They prefer to be called "Minor-Petuluma," but most people call them the 'teenie-weenies.' Boon-dockie-3 inhabitants—"

"-Doctor, I don't really care what we call them." Audrey said with increasing fear and trembling in her voice.

"Yeah me neither. I prefer teenie-weenies but its not very politically correct, you know. They have the most effervescent natural lake there I've ever seen. It's like swimming in soda. Quite refreshing actually. I recommend it next time.."

Suddenly a miniature but mature face, with one weeks unshaven growth and graying hair appeared upside down and only inches in front of the both of them; looking them squarely in the eye and smiling (upside down).

"Alo mates!" the strange creature said in a warm London accent.

It was a face that Audrey knew. It was Mr. Avery! And it was his body that it was attached to. But it was only the size of a bowling pin. The two greeters were hanging from their buddies above from the light fixture like a chain of monkeys. They were horrid to observe and Audrey screamed.

The walls began to reveal themselves. Hundreds of little Mr. Avery clones slid down the walls coming toward the huddled pair of time travelers in the center of the room. Correspondingly, even more little Mr. Avery's made their way down from the ceiling and light fixtures by making a human chain and sliding down one at a time.

The miniature Mr. Avery directly in front of Audrey slipped and fell to the ground as a result of her loud response. But instead of it landing on its feet, it immediately turned into a puddle of bubbling acid and disappeared in front of her, ranking as the most freakiest thing she had ever witnessed.

They were all Mr. Avery clones! Everyone single one of them! They clung together making a sort of horrible wall paper. They stood on the shoulders of each other, and worked as a colony of ants would. They lined the walls and light fixtures. Their movement as one, forced their revelation. They moved-ambled really, slowly and steadily as with a limp, like when the real Mr. Avery used a cane to get around. Occasionally one would slip and fall and when it did, the same thing happened as before. It turned into a boiling puddle of acid.

"Doctor! What are we going to do?"

"Do? Why what we always do, of course!" Replied the Doctor.


	6. Assumptions and Extrapolations

The room was now flooded with a sea of pint size Mr. Avery's; little clones of the former Schoolmaster who had left the Istanbul international school and returned to England to be closer to his grandchildren the previous year, little monsters dressed identically in slacks and argyle patterned shirts with matching gray sport coats. They even had the same salt and pepper hair parted on the left and just on the verge of needing a cut. They said nothing intelligible, but chattered individually in some undecipherable language. They were the spitting image of the man sure enough, they even smiled warmly and limped noticeably which made the whole scene all the more shocking. Their bangs danced back and forth rhythmically as they tottered closer.

The Minor-Petaluma that filled the otherwise empty classroom now surrounded the two time travelers who found themselves about to be completely boxed in the center by the deluge of demonic gnomes still flooding onto the floor, who continued their encroachment inch by inch, moving down the walls, and off the light fixtures. There were too many to deal with individually. Unless the Doctor had a trick up his sleeve, this looked to be the end of Audrey's timeline, which unbeknownst to her and only privy to the Doctor, had already run out; in this reality anyway.

As far has dying in this timeline, the Doctor had told her she was immortal. But then he changed it. Or did he change his mind back? She couldn't remember what the final conclusion was. She only knew that she wasn't fond of the idea even if she did get a freebie.

"Doctor! What do we do!?" Audrey screamed out.

Because of their precarious situation she was unable to face him, so she yelled all the louder to make herself heard as the two remained back to back and facing away from each other. Her back was up-against his with so much force that she was causing him to lean forward.

"Do? Why, what we always do…" the Doctor replied with a tone that seemed he was only mildly bothered and hardly concerned at all by the threatening Petaluma-Minor army.

The Petaluma-Minor limped, inching ever closer, slowly and methodically, surrounding them completely in the center of the room, hemming them in from 360 degrees.

Being on the defense like this was more than Audrey could stand, so she went on the offense and stepping forward away from the Doctor, she conjured up her most formidable presence in an effort to turn back the pint-side horde.

Stepping away from the Doctor, she kicked at one and sent it flying across the room and into the wall making impact with a couple more and instantly splashing them into an oozing pool of acid. A fleeting jolt of accomplishment ran in and out of her as she quickly realized that getting rid of three had no impact on their situation as their absence was immediately filled in by others.

"I wouldn't try that," said the Doctor. "I lost a favorite pair of sneakers that way. They are biological clones and programmable with simple 'binary commands.'

"Doctor, we don't have time for technical analysis-"

Audrey was right. The Minor-Petaluma were now within a foot of them on all sides. Audrey was out of options and the Doctor seemed to be not the slightest bit concerned. What was wrong with him? She turned to face him now, as she leaped into his arms in a last ditch effort to escape, pulling her legs up out of reach of the creepy dwarfs. He caught her reflexively and held her like a newly married couple going over the door threshold for the first time.

"Doctor, you said we should do what we always do, and what is that?"

The Doctor answered by methodically setting her back down to standing. Instantly one of them clawed himself onto her shoe and tugged at her pant-leg. She remained paralyzed with fear. Another one grabbed the back of her other pant-leg at the same time. She felt her hair being pulled and she looked up to see one being let down from above by its ankles as he reached for her hair. Each one was grinning ear to ear, and the fact that they all looked exactly like Mr. Avery made it unbearable.

"Doctor! Pleeeeese dooooo Sommmmmething!" Audrey felt that she either couldn't or shouldn't strike at them for fear of the acid that might make things worse.

"It is the only constant throughout the universe. In every galaxy, every system, there is only one," said the Doctor still in no hurry.

Audrey was now certain she was truly going to be devoured by the Minor-Petaluma.

"Doctor!" was all she could manage to say as two of them began to gnaw on each of her clothes and the one above chewed on her hair.

"The best way to get rid of an enemy is to make him your friend," the Doctor said as he knelt down, to their eye-level.

He began speaking in binary and stuck out his finger as if it were an offering. Audrey watched, there was nothing she could do and she had now officially lost her faith in the Doctor. If she ran and fell, she'd be eaten alive by the acid pool resulting from any squashed Avery tropes. But astonishingly, the one nearest the Doctor responded timidly and returned his friendly gesture, mirroring him and his encroachment ceased. Instantaneously, the entire lot of them stopped in their tracks.

Audrey was dumbfounded and watched awestruck as the Doctor continued, with four little Mr. Avery clones attached to her, they also ceased their movements; frozen as the interaction between the one affected all of them, like the way ants or bees can communicate to the hive or colony.

The one tiny soldier responded to the Doctor by rubbing his shoulder up against his finger, and then turning his back to him, the way a dog wants to be petted. The Doctor responded gently by scratching the little one's back. This resulted in a sound that most resembled a chattering-purring cat.

"There you go my little friend," the doctor laughed as he scratched his back with one hand and another Minor-Petaluma with the other. Audrey knelt slowly and began to do the same. The Doctor had pacified the entire army effortlessly. Perhaps even stranger still, the entire group turned their backs to the Doctor and Audrey showing they had no hostility.

"The Minor-Petaluma are a race of clones. They only exist because of early failed attempts at cloning from DNA. Just as in any scientific process to arrive a correct formula, there is much trial and error. Unfortunately, these poor little guys were either thrown out like garbage or they escaped from the cloning labs and hid in the jungles so that they lived in little colonies and reproduced like any biological creature would do in an effort to keep their species alive. They don't know they were only experiments. They only have the basic needs that all biological creatures share."

"But why do they all look exactly like Mr. Avery, our former Schoolmaster?"

"Good question, indeed. The species exists, as you might imagine in all different shapes, but because they emerged from primitive attempts at DNA cloning process, they naturally retain highly formable DNA cell structures. My guess is that the Mad Mathematician purchased the lot of them and used a scrap of DNA from your Schoolmaster. You said he broke his leg. Broken bones ooze ionic DNA like a leaky garbage sack full of gravy. It would have left a trail a meeter high and a meeter deep all over the school. It would have been simple for Mckinnel to get it with any old sort of 'Partialized Biological-Sample-Separator/ Collector.' It's not the kind of thing readily available in your timeline, but you can pick one up just about anywhere in others. I have one somewhere in the Tardis actually, I traded an Ipod 4 for it. Had to modify the USB connector to charge it in the Tardis, but it holds 10,000 songs…"

"Doctor, the Minor-Petaluma, Derivative of Death…remember? We are still kind of stuck here. What do we do?"

"Yes! Right you are! We need to find Mckinnel!"

The doctor spoke a few more kind words to the Petaluma-Minor making the entire congregation laugh.

"Doctor, did you tell them a joke?"

But he didn't respond. He was bent over at the waist, gasping for air from laughing so hard.

"Oh it never gets old… But I'm not a hen…I'm a rooster, I'm a rooster!"

The Doctor laughed some more and wiped the tear from his eye.

"On second thought, I don't really want to know," Audrey said as the sea of Minor-Petaluma parted for the two of them to exit the room without incident.

"Now then, take me to your Maths class."

"But that was the math class."

They climbed each floor until there were no more floors to climb.

"Think Audrey, think!"

"Doctor, I know this school by heart. I know every step on every stair, every smell on every floor, and every room by heart. I know every crack on every wall, every janitor, every teacher by name-"

"Stop right there!" The Doctor said with staccato.

"It's been my experience that the places we are most familiar with are also the very places where we lose the most things. If we know them so well, then why do they eat so many of our possessions?"

"Did you say 'eat?'"

"It is the one you call a friend that is able to hurt you the most, and so why do you call them friends and not enemies?"

"Doctor, I don't see what-"

"Answer me, why do you call them friends and not enemies? These people whom you have known since kindergarten, these people whom you have grown up with day in and day out, in laughter and mourning. These so-called friends have more potential to hurt you more ability to devastate you than someone you hardly know. They are in fact virtual ticking emotional bombs, armed with only the payload that you put there yourself; the kind of payload that connects to your very own memories and evokes emotion with the capability to destroy you. So I ask you again, why do you call these people friends and not something more accurate like ticking-time-bomb-enemies? Okay that title isn't very catchy, I admit—"

"-Doctor that's a very negative perspective-"

"I'll do the analysis here. Now stop stalling and tell me the answer!"

"I don't know. I guess because we need to be vulnerable."

"And why must you be vulnerable?"

"Because, if two people never open-up and share who they are really and truly, they can never really know each other."

"But in doing so, they drop their shields, leaving themselves exposed to attack. Is the risk worth the reward? Is having a real friend worth the potential devastation?"

"I don't know! Why don't you tell me? You're the Doctor! But I guess you know everything except what it means to have a friend." Audrey was becoming sarcastic and a little tired of the whole thing. It has been a very long day already and she wasn't sure what the Doctor was up to.

The Doctor didn't answer right away. His eyes went out of focus as he looked off into the distance. He was billion miles away.

"Oh, I understand….in ways you never could." The Doctor whispered his reply.

"Doctor what does all this have to do with finding Mr. Mckinnel?"

Audrey's voice snapped him back to the present and he wagged his head shortly.

"Now then..you say you know this building by heart but you have no idea where to find Mckinnel's classroom. I will be willing to bet it is a place you haven't ever considered… a place you've walked by a thousand times. Like an old friend. You see, a stranger is someone you don't know, so you have to ask. Do you like sugar in your coffee? Do you get up early or sleep in late? Do you sleep with a teddy bear? But a friend, you know all these things do you don't ask, and then you begin to extrapolate.

"Extrapolate?"

"Extrapolate things about your friend based on what you do know, but still you don't really know. For instance, you might extrapolate that your friend doesn't like sugar in her tea, because you know for sure she doesn't like sugar in her coffee. But you don't really know this because you've never actually drank tea together, only coffee. You only assume she does based on your former knowledge. " The Doctor said dipping his chin and raising his eyebrows.

"But what does this have to do with the school building?"

The Doctor's face became mysterious and quiet. He looked right and then left and reduced his voice to a whisper.

"Shhhhh…Buildings are just like old friends. There is much you may know, but still more you only assume."

He paused and looked around at their immediate surroundings again, and suddenly Audrey felt uncomfortable in a place she had always been the most at-home besides home.

"These walls, for example…"

"Doctor? Are you saying these walls aren't real? Don't tell me they are some kind of creature in the shape of walls."

Audrey slid away from the wall and into the center of the hallway just as a precautionary measure.

"Actually, I was going to say these walls are quite solid. Sturdy as a rock. It's the floor I have an issue with."

Audrey was afraid to look down toward the floor, but as she did, she saw the tail end of something turning the corner at the end of the hall as if the tile was a bed sheet over a lizard.

"Doctor, what was that..."

"That was nothing to worry about. We can't be distracted now. We must stay on mission." The Doctor said sternly.

Grabbing her shoulders and squaring her gaze he looked directly in the eyes.

"Trust me on this one. These buildings can be just as complex as people…with hidden traps and doors. You think you know them, but there is always more assumption and extrapolation than solid truth."

"Now where is Dr. Mckinnel holding his secret Maths class?"

"Doctor, I just don't know…"

"Think! Audrey, think!…."

The Doctor took her by the hand and lead her down the flight of stairs.

"Are we going outside?"

The Doctor said nothing but lead her as though he knew exactly where they needed to go. His jacket flapped in the breeze created by the abrupt movements. But how could he know, he had never been in the building before.

"Like I said, sometimes the places we know the best, are the places we know the least."

"Did you say that?"

"I think I did. If not, I meant to say it. Well here we are then. There!"

The Doctor stopped and they were alone on the stairwell in between floors.

"Doctor, there are no classrooms here. This is in-between floors." Audrey said.

"No? You said you knew every 'crack' on every wall. Do you remember that? What what about this one?"

The Doctor pointed to the wall and sure enough there was a little crack in the plaster. It was small, but unusual in shape. It was just about the size of a pencil. What was most unusual was that it was like a strait edge, and it had been painted over before.

"Doctor, this crack has been painted over. And look here."

Audrey followed the projected path of the crack and saw that there was indeed a larger line that had been painted over, perhaps in an effort to keep it hidden. The doctor's hands flew to it, sweeping away and tapping it lightly swiftly revealing something much larger. In a few moments, the Doctor had brushed away the outline of a painted over crack that revealed the shape of a door.

(End of Chapter 6)


	7. Secret Maths

(Episode 7)

The investigation revealed that there was indeed a crack in the wall that when traced-out revealed the frame of a door; large enough to be a classroom.

"I can't believe this is here, in-between the 2nd and 3rd floors. I've—"

The Doctor interrupted Audrey in mid-sentence.

"— It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, rather pedestrian actually. Sorry to interrupt you and terribly rude of me, but time is of the essence here."

The Doctor was right. They needed to find the secret Maths lab and stop the evil Mckinnel from working his treachery, but his abruptness was uncalled for and Audrey wasn't sure she was going to let it go without counter.

The Doctor immediately retrieved his sonic screwdriver and went to work on a small square metallic panel that was inlaid near the corner. It appeared to be some sort of electronic-mechanical latching control box. His eyebrows narrowed and forehead strained. He was totally immersed in the next riddle, the one of opening the door to the secret maths lab.

"Oh… he is good. He's really really good…he's so good, he's bad…this little mathematical devil."

"Doctor, what is the—"

"Not now! The Doctor is at work. This is a highly complex algorithm interwoven into some sort of speech pattern, encompassing different languages or dialects of some sort."

"But Doctor I might be able to help-"

The Doctor never heard Audrey's proposal to help. He was far too enveloped in the challenge of cracking the code. Codes after all, only exist to keep someone out of something, which presented an irresistible double layered temptation to the Doctor; first the challenge to go some place that someone else wanted to keep him out of and second, using his superior intellect to out-think the person who put it into place.

"Codes are made to keep people out of something. And why would somebody want to keep somebody else out of something? Because there's something in there worth getting. Otherwise nobody would go to the bother of thinking them up, if the thing they wanted to keep people out of wasn't worth the trouble."

"Yeah, I know what a code is." said Audrey dryly.

"Do you now? Ever tried to crack the Botangian triple mirrored-helix, renown for its randomizing parity stripe? Or maybe the Coodymango Latice? Its encryption system was based on the dual-lunar cycle specific to their planet, mind you, of which there are TWO! That's right two moons that orbit each other as well as the planet! The whole thing is like two Yoyo's tangled together in the middle and hurled out into space with the two weighted ends pulling, spinning, tangling around the other and then the whole bit is caught in the orbit of a planet. Makes for a perfectly nasty algorithm, but perfectly logical for those who live there."

Audrey said nothing, she only exhaled. For someone so smart, he certainly was impressed with himself.

The Doctor continued to ramble as he worked.

"The Coodymango's think they are the center of their universe alright. Can't be happy to go along with everyone else's' units of measurement. No no, Treefs and Hools are too uniform, too pedestrian for them. No, the Coodymango's have to do everything their own way. Squanks and Veepers are their unit of measure, just to be different mind you. But the real problem is converting their systems of weights. In that entire sector everyone is just fine with the Vox. It's so simple, very easy to use, but standard. Do you know what the Coodymango's use?

"No I don't."

"The Coodymango's use Bot'ls. Can you believe that? Bot'l ! It's perfectly ridiculous! How many bot'ls do you weigh today? I lost two bot'ls last week when I started exercising. I'm convinced that everyone on Coodymango had their brains affected by the spinning moons twirling about their heads each night."

"Doctor, Please.." Audrey was growing tired of the lecture that had nothing to do with her situation. Plus in all honesty, she was on sensory overload already, and just couldn't take in any more information, especially if it seemed so trivial as the Coodymango's units of measure.

"But this…this is something different, to be sure. I've never seen anything quite so devious. It's a verbal command but something my sonic screwdrivers doesn't have much linguistic information. It might be Yasoflupian or maybe even Garroyepremian. Those are the toughest to translate. Ohhh this guy's a devil."

"Doctor,-"

"Not now..I've got something. Here…what about this?… 45-62-99-Pompy-Tall!"

The Doctor's face tilted slightly in anticipation, but nothing happened.

"Hmm let's try this… 65-33-21- Itchy-Mom "

The Doctor's attempt at find a verbal key to the locked door failed with a buzzing sound.

" Maybe the numerical sequence isn't necessary…Let's try this! Flappy-Don, no no..Tauchy-Sawm….Moppy-Mawww…oh I think I'm getting closer… Let's see…Howlling-Fraum….Mocha-Tom….SqueeGee-Paw…"

"Hawjee-Mahhhhh?" Audrey said and immediately a latching mechanism clicked and the door went ajar.

The Doctor surprised at how she could have cracked the code, looked at her with both eyebrows raised to their full extent.

"Every five-year-old kindergarten student knows it, here at this school," Audrey replied smugly after having outperformed both the Doctor and his beloved screwdriver.

"But how? How-d-d-d"

"I can't reveal my secrets. Time is of the essence here. But I think your screwdriver owes me an apology."

Audrey dished back some of the same curtness the Doctor had served her.

"But,but, but, you can't be serious. Don't be silly. Sonic screwdrivers don't apologize."

"Well maybe they should if they said something rude."

"But that's ridiculous! He never said anything bad about you. Okay one time..he didn't mean it…never mind. Let's just proceed into this secret door shall we and see what's inside?"

"Welcome Doctor, I've been expecting you."

A familiar voice greeted them both into a darkened but normal looking classroom.

"Mr. Mckinnel! So it is true! What is all this…"

The Doctor said nothing. He merely purveyed the classroom taking notice of its particulars.

"Of all the things I could have imagined, I never would have ever imagined that you Mr. Mckinnel would do something like this."

But neither Mr. Mckinnel nor the Doctor responded to Audrey's chastisements.

"It's just a normal classroom," said the Doctor.

"That's right. It's just a normal classroom," replied Mr. Mckinnel. "And what's wrong with a math teacher wanting to instill the love of math to his students?"

"But the secret door?" Audrey called out.

"Secret doors are only secret because you never stopped to notice it before. The administration knows about this. They gave me approval even. There's nothing really hidden here. All done, in the aim of instilling a love for math, in students. Administrators will go to great lengths you know for such endeavors. Making math seem cool is what I was charged with, and so I did. These students come in here to my 'secret math lab' to do extra work and develop their math skills."

"You mean to carry out your evil plan to rip another hole in the fabric of space and time!" Audrey yelled.

Mr. Mckinnel only chuckled.

"What an imagination you have. Great science fiction. Sounds like a great episode of Star Trek. But what you see here, is exactly what I said. Students come here at their own prerogative, during lunch, and after school, this is extra credit, math development. Nothing is required or demanded. It is one hundred percent voluntary."

" I told you he is diabolical," muttered the Doctor as if he knew that what the Mad Mathematician was saying was right.

"You are both welcomed to stay and join in the fun. We could use the extra brain power. Especially you Doctor, I think it would really add to what we are trying to do here, if you'd stay and do a few problems on the board for us."

Mckinnel grinned evilly as he accentuated the words that only the three of them understood the hidden meaning.

Students began to filter in with their notebooks and calculators. They paid no attention to the two visitors. The Doctor checked in with his Sonic Screwdriver, this time turning away from Audrey and shielding it from her, or her from it, he wasn't sure just which.

"The implosion is eminent." replied the Doctor. If we don't do something soon, this entire room will be sucked away and everyone inside of it.

"It's so exciting isn't it?" said Mckinnel rubbing his hands deviously. "We just need a little more brain power to push over the threshold. Doctor, I have a problem here that nobody has been able to solve. Maybe you'd like to show us all how it should be worked."

Mckinnel said invitingly as he went to the board and began to write the numbers on the board. The Doctor's bottom lipped protruded as if to say, "very cute, very infantile."

But something interesting began to happen. The longer he watched Mckinnel continue to write out the math problem, the more he began to hear something. It was as if the numbers were speaking to him.

"You could solve this so easily. You are the Doctor! Nobody else can solve this, and it would take you no effort, no brain power. Think of that! Solving this problem that nobody else can do, and doing it with no brain power. No that's something only the Doctor can do."

It seemed that Mckinnel wrote numbers continuously for five minutes before he was finally done. The enormous math problem filled one entire white board, across the top anyway.

The numbers beckoned the Doctor.

The Doctor stood there trying not to let the problem entice him, but it began to suck him in. Before he knew it, he was already solving the first part of the derivative.

"Well, you've got to be the stupidest mathematician, I've ever seen." Audrey said with clear disgust. "As if that would even work. As if, the Doctor doesn't know what you are up to."

How annoying that Mckinnel would even think he could invite the Doctor, as if he would join in his plan.

Mckinnel didn't say a word. He only grinned with confidence as he observed the Doctor's demeanor.

The Doctor's eyes were darting, left then right. His face took on a sallowed expression that was just flat-out scary. Audrey began to feel sick to her stomach.

"Yes, that's right Doctor. You can solve it," said Mckinnel softly and tenderly, easing him into it.

The Doctor held no look about him exactly. He seemed mechanical and soul-less.

"Doctor, no! Doctor what are you doing!"

Audrey yelled but just as before when he was working on the code, the Doctor paid her no mind. He was sucked into the vortex of Mckinnel's trap, again! His brain power was sure to push the ionic energy required for the tear to occur. How was she going to stop him? What was she going to do?

The doctor picked up a marker and began writing numbers, slowly at first, but faster and faster.

Students who had arrived ceased their own problems and began to watch the Doctor the same way spectators admire professional athletes.

Mr. Mckinnel laughed.

"Doctor no!" Audrey screamed again, but there was no sign that the Doctor was hearing her. It was now up to her.

The Doctor had traveled millions of miles through space and time to stop the Doomsday derivative, and now he had somehow unwittingly become an accomplice in it. He was solving it this very moment. His ionic brainwave energy was sure to split the fabric again.

But what could Audrey do?

She immediately thought of warning the students there to cease their math work. Around the room she flew, begging and pleading with them.

"Stop the math! She grabbed a pen and began to write on the walls in ink… "Math will Kill You! Say No to Math! She even drew the word math with a circle and slash through it, but nobody paid her even the slightest attention.

She tried preaching this gospel by standing up on a desk and explaining about the ionic energy, but it was only Mr. Mckinnel that found her interesting.

She realized that it was becoming hopeless. It was too late to go on an anti-math campaign and have it do any good. Any minute the fabric was going to tear again and all of them would be gone along with it. She was going to have to come up with something else.

But what?


	8. Conclusion

Audrey flopped down in a chair, deflated. What was she going to do? The only teacher that understood was Mr. Mckinnel, and he was the problem. But with the Doctor now sucked into the Doomsday Derivative it seemed now that another rip in the fabric was just a matter of time. This time there was no telling how big it would be. The implosion could take out half the students at IGA. Mckinnel had left the room and probably the campus. Audrey felt the air around her thinning. It seemed as though it was turning to helium. Each breath seemed inadequate and instead of one she needed two.

She simply could not resist the impulse to breathe twice as often and deeper. She knew this could very well be part of the mechanics related to the implosion, but she knew that it was an indication of hyperventilation. If she succumbed to her instincts, it would render her unconscious. And whether it was true of not, she convinced herself there was enough air. She tried to calm down. She needed to stay in control. She needed to survive if she was going to save the school.

There wasn't any time to explain the predicament to the teachers, plus how crazy would it sound? She would be trying to enlist them in an anti-math campaign. There just was no hope of that. There was no one she could think of. The Doctor was the only one capable of solving this thing but he was out of the picture now because he had become part of the problem; no pun intended. Of all the crazy, upside-down series of plausible scenarios. She never thought the Doctor would be the one to cause the implosion. There was no turning back for the Doctor, once he started a challenge, he was into it 100%. Mckinnel must have known this was his siren song.

Wait a second!

A wave of inspiration flooded Audrey and she arose from her chair with a new idea.

"The Doctor has become part of the problem. The Doctor has become part of the problem. The Doctor is our only hope. But the Doctor has become part of the problem. The Doctor is our only hope, but he has become part of the problem. The Doctor is our only hope and he is part of the problem. Our only hope has become part of the problem."

This two thoughts cycled back and forth faster and faster until they blended into one.

"Our only hope has become part of the problem. Our only hope has become THE problem? No! Our only hope has become only PART of the problem?"

Her thoughts seemed to reduce themselves just like a numerical expression that contained all the information, but just needed to be simplified. With the Doctor becoming part of the problem, there was enough of him left to still solve the rest of the problem.

And in that moment, Audrey knew what she had to do.

She sprang from her chair and stood beside the Doctor. He continued to work the problem like a mechanical robot, programmed to solve that problem on the board, eyes fixed and writing-hand in motion.

"Doctor, I know you can hear me. And I know something else about you."

The Doctor didn't stop working the math problem. He didn't even acknowledge her.

"Doctor, you can keep working that problem, but I have observed a thing or two about you and I know there is one thing you cannot resist. The challenge to save the planet!"

The Doctor continued robotically, not looking away from his task. His eyes focused dead on the board, his hand scribbling away like a mad man.

"That is why you are working this very problem. It is because nobody else could solve it, if someone else had tried, the amount of brain power they would use would most certainly push the quota over the edge, causing the implosion. But you, the Doctor are the only one that could work on it, with your brain in low-power mode, but in doing so, it's locked you-up and we need you to solve this thing WHILE you solve that Derivative. But here is something else. Even a bigger challenge awaits you than this one. I know you can't stop in the middle of it because it would mean you failed the challenge, but here is the bigger challenge."

The doctor continued on his problem.

"You go right ahead and solve this math problem, but at the same time, I want you to prevent the tear in the space fabric. Think of it! I saw you processing millions of things at the same time. You can do it with your brain operating in conservation mode even. Solve this problem, but tell me what I need to do in order to keep this thing from tearing open and taking half of the school along with it. Now Doctor we're running out of time. There may only be minutes or seconds left. I have no idea."

The Doctor's hand ceased writing for exactly two seconds and then continued. Without looking her direction, he wrote a mathematical expression to the side and immediately went back to working the problem.

"Notwen's -3rd Wall"

This was the expression the Doctor wrote.

"But Doctor..I don't know what you're talking about. What or who is Notwen? negative 3rd Wall? Doctor, we have to hurry or we'll all implode!"

On the edge of despair yet again, Audrey heard a voice of salvation behind her. It was one of the students in the voluntary secret maths lab, offering a solution to the Doctor's words. She turned on a dime.

"A negative of a number is the opposite of a positive number." Justin stated calmly.

"So what are you saying?"

"Just that 'negative third wall' in mathematical terms must be the opposite of a positive third wall."

"But what does that mean? What is a third wall and why is it opposite? Does that mean anything to you? Think Justin, think! Is there a third wall in this building somewhere? "

"Justin calmly looked downward like he had all day (and all night) to contemplate the question."

"Justin, we are running out of time! We have to solve this now. Third wall, third wall…third wall..anything?"

"Third wall, third wall, third wall…hmmm" Justin seemed to work even slower after Audrey's cajoling. But she could make neither heads nor tails of it all.

"The only thing I can think of is a third law…but I don't -"

Audrey cut him off in mid sentence.

"That's it! Third law. It's backwards. This happened before. Everything he said is backwards. The opposite of a negative three is positive, and the wall backwards is Law."

"Newton's Third Law," Justin said in such a calm fashion he almost seemed sleepy.

"Yes!" Audrey exclaimed. "But what is Newton's third Law?"

"Every action requires an equal and opposite reaction," Justin replied.

"But…no, no it can't be that simple." Audrey said to herself before running up to the Doctor as he continued to mechanically work the problem.

And getting up close to his cheek, she whispered something to him that only the both of them could hear. The Doctor showed no response, but only continued.

Audrey jolted with a bolt of purpose and mission. She charged out of the classroom, stopped suddenly as if she forgot something important and ran back to the Doctor and kissed him on the she whirled and headed out the door and stopped one more time just like before. This time she whirled and returned to Justin who remained stoically seated at his desk.

"Thank you!" She said and gave him the same expression of thankfulness on his cheek before she turned and dashed out of the room. In a flash, she was gone.

Justin raised his eyebrows and touched his cheek, he said to himself, " I guess AP Physics did really come in handy after all."

In like fashion, only then did the Doctor cease working the problem for a second and touched his cheek before continuing.

Racing around the corner, Audrey did something she had always wanted to do. She opened the cupboard that concealed a microphone. She took it in her hand and depressed the button that allowed her to speak to the entire school over the PA system.

"All IGA students, this is Audrey Dawn. Can I have your attention please! I don't meant to scare you, but all of our lives are at stake! There is no time to explain. Evil math forces are at work and only moments remain. An ionic cloud of energy that was generated by excessive math work has risen to unstable proportions. Our survival depends on two things. Our schools ability to create an equally negative ionic cloud which will reduce the danger of implosion. I need every able bodied gamer to get onto a school computer and start playing League, or Gears of War, or Minecraft. Take your pick, it doesn't matter. It is our only hope. There's no time to loose. Gamers of Istanbul Gateway Academy, our lives are in your hands. We need you to forget about everything else and live in this moment; and play like there is no tomorrow."

Her impromptu speech was as brilliant as it was passionate. Unfortunately the PA system didn't work properly, and cut in and out during the whole thing, which meant that the entire school was only getting bits of her speech.

What everyone else heard was… "Audrey… Tom…Holland…Crush.…Hamilton…math evil…..Tom Holland…bae…Senior… shipping…..totally…..Amaaazing….Hamilton….Avengers….End Game…..IGA…Gamers our lives are in your hands."

The last line of her charge came through clear, leaving all the teachers and staff in a state of shock, wondering what was going on. But while the IGA community remained stunned a group of 9th graders responded to the call with immediate action.

Elijah Dawn, Audrey's younger brother, lead the charge by standing up on his chair. In R.E. class.

"You heard her! Now who is with me! Who will man-up and answer the call?"

A contingent of Freshmen boys demonstrated their willingness by climbing onto their chairs as well. One by one they emerged, Shewon, Wongin, Josh, and Won. Mr. Huffman responded somewhat unexpectedly, but slowly taking a step onto his chair and rising high above the others, he quoted one of the early church fathers.

"Justin Martyr famously said that, those who have means and are willing, each according to his own choice, gives what he wills, and what is collected is deposited with the president."

Nobody said anything mainly because they had no idea what it meant.

"Let me restate it this way," Mr. Huffman continued. "It means we shall go forth from this room together as one unit, mobilized in one purpose as crusaders united in the one holy mission to deliver the sacred lands from the hand of the infidel, and thereby assuring a glorious place in history."

Unfortunately, his restatement did little to clear things up, and the class remained in a state of bewilderment.

"Is he talking about a homework assignment?"

"No, he said he's on-board," Alexandra provided the needed translation to the rest of the class.

The energy was palpable. The need to respond with unilateral action was understood. And those committed to the task who had demonstrated their pledge by standing-up on their chair suddenly leaped to the ground as though charging into battle with a shout.

Together they stormed down out of the classroom and down the hall with visions of grandeur; amped up to conquer through video game domination. Mr. Huffman lead the way grabbing a copy of Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will on the way out and yielding it in the air as though it was a sword.

He shouted "Vinni Vidi Vici," as he ushered the parade of 9th grade warriors out into battle.

They filled up the computer lab and immediately discovered that access had been locked out.

"Fret not, fellow crusaders," Said Mr. Huffman "For, I have the password, and will supply you with the keys to the kingdom."

And in a second they had all gotten access and began to play games. Every computer was taken, as the room was filled with gamers working to save the lives of the school and bewildered spectators that stood by watching to see what was going to happen next.

Back in the secret maths lab, a strange phenomenon was occurring. The ceiling began to wrinkle like a blanket on top of a bed. It was the beginning of the implosion. The atomic structures of the physical environment were beginning to show anomalies and their appearance was starting to warp and bend. Matter was becoming unstable. It was the initial openings into time and space, the start of the implosion. Hard surfaces became soft in spots. And as the ionic energy continued to grow, the soft spots would also grow larger until eventually everything gelled into an unstable spot in space and time. The implosion process was officially underway. The Doctor only continued to work his problem unfazed by the danger that surrounded them. The ceiling wrinkled above and the floor sunk-in in spots. Justin's chair molded softly underneath him so that it actually became comfortable.

Back in the computer lab, Audrey arrived with grocery sacks full of chips, sodas, and candy from A-101. Her thinking was that if working math problems caused a production of positive ionic brain energy, playing video games and eating junk food would create a negative ionic affect, creating a kind of ionic vacuum that would attract the positive ionic flow away from the maths lab. Basically she was hoping that all the negative brain energy would have the opposite effect, putting Newton's third law into effect.

Her logic was sound. If mathematical problems evoked ionic brain energy, then playing computer games should have the reverse effect, thereby counteracting the buildup of energy that had been accumulating since the creation of the secret math lab. The junk food, she thought, should accelerate the negative energy, and hopefully erase the entire threat.

"Pass me the chips!" yelled Elijah unable to take his focus from his game.

Someone tore open the bag and chips went flying in the mad dash to get junk food into the dedicated gamer.

"Where's the coke!" Shewon cried out.

"Quick someone get him the coke," another yelled.

Ripping off the cap like a Viking caused the pressurized bottle to shoot soda foam all over the place, but there was no time to worry about messes now. Not with everyone's lives on the line.

While the 9th grade boys, and Mr. Huffman dominated in the computer lab, Teachers and staff trickled into the computer lab to observe. Like a mighty chess match between two titans, the battle raged on.

The Doctor's ionic brain flow began to get sucked into the vortex created by the negative ionic energy created by the 9th grade computer gamers eating junk food.

"Ohhhhh.. look out behind!" Josh yelled.

"Headshot! On your right! Right!"

The computer warriors yelled out commands to each other and played the games with reckless abandon before a growing pool of spectators. Chips and Coke flew around the room like there had been a pillow fight.

"It's working! It's working. We need more!" Audrey proclaimed. "Eat more chips! Here have a chocolate bar, drink some more Coke."

Elijah took off his shirt and threw it without looking into the spectators.

"Somebody get my shoes," he yelled and two girls pulled them off, so that he was now barefoot and bare-chested. "Ah, much better, now I can concentrate."

The boys were doing their best to save the school. "Shewon began to rap while he played League."

"They Call Me Shewon...

There I was.. mind'n my own thing.

But you had to come and try to get me to sing.

Then I blew your minds, and became Rap'n K-king..

Lyrics and rhyme I was bringing it Prime..

But you hadn't realized cuz y'all were blind

Hiding yo smiles think'n I was just doin it Gangnam style

Tatoo'ed it on yall's brain like ink and stain with pain so it remains..

with most improved game, no longer the same name, The girls and fame,

Takin me up in flames, cuz I can't be tamed,

So long to ya- 9th grade, the whole year is start'n to fade,

Got more green slips this year than ever been made,

Take'n over the show like police on a raid

Don't look now I'm crashing through walls, I'm getting taller...

Y'all are look'n smaller, I'm wear'n gold bling over my shirt collar,

On sosh-medya I block the unknown caller.

So here we go like jumping in the cold water,

Bring your own sharpie and I'll autograph your father and your daughter,

You can sell it one day, for thousands of dollars,

Let me introduce mo'self,, In case you don't know me...

They call me Shewon! IGA Rap Legend and MVP Baller! "

A group of cheers spontaneously broke out chanting as if it were a sports event.

"Come on boys, gaming's cool, Nerdy-out and save our school."

Mr. Huffman was caught up in the emotion and stepped up on the desk and began to read from his copy of Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will.

"Even grammarians and schoolboys on street corners know that nothing more is signified by verbs in the imperative mood than what ought to be done, and that what is done or can be done should be expressed by words in the indicative. How is it that you theologians are twice as stupid as schoolboys, in that as soon as you get hold of a single imperative verb you infer an indicative meaning, as though the moment a thing is commanded it is done, or can be done? This comes from page 159 duly noted. Face!"

Back in the maths lab, the wavy ceiling that had started to move like water ripples began to recede and become firmer once again. The opposite and equal reaction was working! The implosion process was being counter-acted.

A giant belch was heard by one of the gamers, and room responded with cheers and whoops and yells.

Mr. Choi raised both arms in victory and Ms. Charino did a cartwheel that ended with a backflip. The school had been saved from eminent destruction and the Doctor slammed his marker down at last.

"There! Doomsday Derivative, you just met your match!"

He completed what no one else had been able to do. He had returned to himself and the school had been saved. In one sense, he saved it, but in another Audrey had. But there sadly was no time for celebration.

Before Audrey had time to celebrate with her friends, the Doctor had appeared in the computer lab and whisked her away among all the cheering, taking her by the hand in a mad dash back outside en route to the Tardis. Nobody noticed her leaving amid the raucous celebration.

"Doctor! Are you back to yourself?"

"I'm afraid so."

"But why afraid?"

"Because I'm the Doctor and I understand too much."

She may not have understood everything he meant, but she got the idea.

"It's over yes, for now, these students and these teachers averted implosion but how many more alternate time lines are right now imploding."

It was more of a statement than a question and Audrey knew what it meant. The realization hit her like a brick on on the head that she didn't belong here. Taking her last step off solid earth and into the Tardis, she looked back at her school and in one instant all the experiences flooded into her that she had had since she was six years old.

She saw herself taking naps as a first grader, and with all the security that her lunchtime blanket offered her in a room full of love from a caring teacher, she remembered losing her baby teeth in the middle of class, at recess and at lunch.

The thoughts ran through her vividly but sharply and quickly evoking strange emotions.

She remembered having class with Mr. Lee and how he told her that she was doing too much homework. She remembered P.E. with Mr. Lentz before the soccer pitch was there. She remembered when there was a batting cage and hitting baseballs and hitting a whiffle ball HomeRun. She remembered singing in choirs and playing piano recitals. She remembered seeing the older girls and how pretty they looked and how exciting it was to be in middle school and get to do things with the high schoolers; who seemed to be in their mid twenties.

She remembered when she had to look up to see the teachers and stand up on her tip toes to reach light switches and overhead cupboards now she looked most adults at eye level. She remembered seeing the entire grounds covered in white snow and how beautiful it looked. She remembered the fun she used to have when all the kids would run around together and the world seemed much fuller of bigger kids and adults.

She always knew that this day would come when she'd have to leave, but she never wanted to think about it: the day when she would say good-by to her school that, like the Doctor had said, had become an old friend indeed.

She always expected that on that day, she was going to feel sad, and she expected there to be a welling of emotion in her stomach, but strangely it didn't come.

"Goodbye old friend," she said smiling. "I'll never forget you. You will never be far from me, but you will always be a part of who I am, because that's how friends are. Someday I will tell my children my stories of my school days at Istanbul International School."

She expected tears, but instead felt comforted inside. She had the notion that her old friend was proud of her and ready to see her fly.

She would would meet new friends and have new experiences that she was now prepared for. She realized that that little old orange building with its random bare paint spots and familiar sounds and smells and heart warming memories was important. But also like a true friend, it was willing to let her go off to have new adventures the likes of which she could never have if she stayed behind.

In that moment, she realized what a great friend that school had been and how it would always be a part of who she would become. She realized that it had always been preparing her for this; to step into that Tardis and fly off to an altogether new timeline, where new adventures, and new friends awaited her; people she would never get to meet and experiences she would never get to have if she didn't say goodbye to IGA, for she wouldn't have become the person she is now, were it not for her old friend, and for that she would always be grateful.

She turned her back to her school and looking into the Tardis window she saw her reflection with her old friend in the background. She had grown-up but there was still more of that to do, still so much more to learn. She didn't want to turn back again so she only looked at the reflection one last time.

She stepped into the Tardis and the doors closed behind her.

The End..

(..of one timeline. The Beginning of Another)


End file.
